Anniversary of the death of Sarajevo defence hero Enver Šehović

Enver Šehović, wartime commander of the First Glorious and Knightly Motorised Brigade, was killed on 27 July 1993 while defending the Žuč hill at the age of 26. He was survived by his wife and daughter.

He was awarded the highest wartime recognition, the Golden Lily, and posthumously the Order of the Hero of the Liberation War, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Those who knew him and had the opportunity to fight alongside him against the enemy have only words of praise for Šeho, as he was called.

Enver Šehović graduated from the Military Academy in Belgrade and then returned to the Marshal Tito barracks, where from 1988 he worked as a young lieutenant training new generations of JNA cadets at the Training Centre.

His officer's dream of the brotherhood and unity of the peoples of Yugoslavia shattered on 4 and 5 April 1992, when citizens of Sarajevo and surrounding areas gathered for anti-war demonstrations in front of the Assembly of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located near his barracks. It became clear that Šehović no longer had a place in the JNA.

After the attack by Serbian special forces loyal to Radovan Karadžić on the MUP school of the Republic of BiH and the opening of sniper fire on citizens in front of the Assembly of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early morning hours of 6 April, the first infantry attacks by the JNA and Serbian paramilitary forces on the city of Sarajevo followed.

Enver Šehović left the Marshal Tito barracks a few days later and joined the Territorial Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was 25 years old.

As Salko Idriz, commander of the Novo Sarajevo Municipal TO Staff, recounts, from the first conversation with Enver he saw that he was an exceptionally young man, full of patriotism and determination to fight for the defence of his homeland.

Unlike many officers who at that time chose the positions they would take and avoided combat units, Enver Šehović immediately accepted the duty of commander of the Velešić Detachment.

One of Enver Šehović's first tasks was to blockade his former barracks, Marshal Tito, from which his former colleagues were firing on the citizens of Sarajevo. The Territorial Defence forces, with the support of the police and self-organised citizens, launched one of the most important operational-tactical battles for the defence of Sarajevo, known as the Pofalići Battle (code name Thunder), in the early dawn of 16 May 1992. Although still poorly organised and sparsely armed with infantry weapons, they managed to liberate the wider Pofalići area and completely defeat the occupying forces and their local collaborators. On 5 June 1992, after lengthy negotiations, the JNA forces also left the Marshal Tito barracks.

At the beginning of June 1992, in the first operation to break the siege of the city, Summer '92, the forces of the Novo Sarajevo and Vogošća municipal staffs liberated the Orlić peak on 8 June 1992 – the most dominant peak on the Žuč plateau.

After the first, famous battle for the Orlić peak on 8 June 1992, a December series of great battles and great victories followed for Vis, peak 850 and Golo brdo.

From 22 July 1993, the intensity of the attacks was at its strongest, and from then on Commander Šehović remained at his command post at all times. Žuč was a key point in the defence of the city. All the fighters who looked at Sarajevo daily from the heights of this hill knew this. As always during enemy offensives, between 2,500 and 3,000 shells fell daily on the positions of the Army of the Republic of BiH on this hill.

On 27 July, Šehović went home at 1 a.m. to rest and bathe. A few hours later, he was called back from the command post because the situation on the battlefield was becoming increasingly difficult. The fearless commander was soon at the forward command post, where he observed the situation on the ground with binoculars. Šehović ordered all his officers to gather all available forces and join the fighters on the lines.

DEATH OF THE COMMANDER

While the city's defenders were stopping the enemy forces with their last atoms of strength, a shell hit the immediate vicinity of the Command Post. Šehović succumbed to his wounds.

- The story of Žuč ends with the death of Šehović, the Panjeta brothers and earlier Safet Zajko... It was simply a mythical story - said war reporter Šefko Hodžić.

He was buried in the courtyard of the Ali Pasha Mosque in Sarajevo, next to his friend Safet Zajko. A street in Sarajevo bears the name of Enver Šehović.